Xplode Magazine

Xplode Magazine

“All I needed was a laptop to make a difference”

Meet Kieran Roberts who set up his own charity at 23-years-old. Kieran is a teacher at West Didsbury Primary School and is changing the world, one step at a time.

Around a year ago, Kieran visited Tanzania on holiday and as he was driving through, he saw some schools that looked terrible – schools that didn’t even have books for the children who studied there.

Kieran wanted to change that, he wanted to make a difference and so he set up ‘The No Barriers Foundation’ which works with schools in countries that need support. His charity helps to hire teachers and raise materials for them to use.

Speaking to Xplode Magazine, Kieran said:

“After I visited Tanzania and saw what the children had to put up with, I wanted to make a difference. Your life chances shouldn’t depend on where you were born and the best way to get out of poverty is education, so I started sending a few books to less-well-off countries.”

“The word then spread and I had lots of different charities approaching me for help and I started a big book drive to help as many schools as possible.”

“I ran the recent Manchester 10K Run and raised enough money to pay for a teacher in Bangladesh, which is just incredible. I feel really proud and I didn’t intend for it to go this far.”

“When I first sent the books away, I thought that’s it, I’ve done my part and then I got some photos of the kids with the books that we’d sent over and that just motivated me to do more.”

“There are 120 million children across the world living in poverty and I’m only helping a couple of hundred at the moment, so there’s more to be done!”

“There are lots of ways to get involved and the easiest way is to help with teaching supplies – books, pens and pencils. It’s all about the small items.”